Americans United - American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ)https://au.org/tags/american-center-law-and-justice-aclj
enGod's Lawyershttps://au.org/church-state/march-2013-church-state/featured/gods-lawyers
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>Stanford Law School in California is a prestigious institution with a distinguished past. Founded in 1893, one of its first professors was a former president, Benjamin Harrison.</p><p>When the school opened new offices in 1975, another president, Gerald Ford, was on hand for the festivities. On its website, Stanford proudly calls itself “one of the nation’s top law schools.” <em>U.S. News &amp; World Report</em> agrees and ranks the school number two in the nation, behind only Yale Law School.</p><p>It came as quite a surprise, then, when officials at Stanford announced recently that they would open a “Religious Liberty Clinic” thanks to a $1.6 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation that was funneled through the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a Washington, D.C.-based legal group that seeks to undermine church-state separation with arguments straight out of the Religious Right’s playbook.</p><p>The creation of such a clinic at one of the nation’s best law schools underscores the incredible growth, financial power and political influence of the Religious Right’s legal organizations. Thirty years ago, fundamentalist Protestant and ultra-conservative Catholic political forces were represented in court by small, ill-funded and mostly ineffective outfits that few took seriously. They certainly didn’t have the clout to graft themselves onto major law schools.</p><p>Today these outfits have multi-million-dollar budgets, hundreds of allied attorneys and remarkable clout in the halls of government. And they are pressing courts and elected officials to fund religious schools and other ministries, open public schools to coercive prayer and proselytizing, limit reproductive rights and gay rights and give organized religion special privileges generally.</p><p>Stanford officials have made it clear that the new clinic will push a conservative religious and political perspective.</p><p>“The 47 percent of the people who voted for Mitt Romney deserve a curriculum as well,” Lawrence C. Marshall, Stanford’s associate dean for clinical legal education, told <em>The New York Times</em>. “My mission has been to make clinical education as central to legal education as it is to medical education. Just as we are concerned about diversity in gender, race and ethnicity, we ought to be committed to ideological diversity.”</p><p>The clinic’s founding director, James A. Sonne, told <em>The Times</em>, “In framing our docket, we decided we would represent the believers. Our job is religious liberty rather than freedom from religion.”</p><p>Sonne is a former professor at Ave Maria School of Law, an ultra-conservative Catholic school in Florida founded by Domino’s Pizza magnate Thomas Monaghan.</p><p>A taste of things to come at Stanford may have been offered during a recent panel discussion at the clinic. <em>The Times</em> reported that Hannah C. Smith, Becket Fund senior counsel, asserted that church-state separation isn’t in the Constitution.</p><p>Smith, a former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, told attendees that Becket works to show “there are certain God-given rights that existed before the state. God gave people the yearning to discover him. Religious freedom means we have to protect the right to search for religious truth free from government intrusion.”</p><p>But Smith’s approach to religious freedom is quite different from the definition of attorneys who support church-state separation, and they worry about the burgeoning influence of the Becket Fund and its allies.</p><p>The Religious Right move toward legal power began in the 1990s. A turning point occurred when TV preacher Pat Robertson jettisoned a small legal group he had formed called the National Legal Foundation and announced the creation in 1990 of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ).</p><p>Named deliberately to tweak the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLJ was for many years the leading Religious Right legal group in the nation. Headed by Jay Sekulow, a Jewish lawyer who converted to evangelical Christianity after his private legal practice became mired in financial problems, the ACLJ collected millions from Robertson’s eager followers. Its aim was a frontal assault on the wall of separation between church and state.</p><p>The ACLJ operates in tandem with a separate organization Sekulow had founded called Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism. According to its most recent IRS filing, the operation takes in over $40 million annually.</p><p>Even Sekulow’s critics admit that he’s an effective advocate. He has argued several times before the U.S. Supreme Court and helped pioneer a key legal Religious Right strategy of arguing that the government’s failure to extend certain benefits to religion is, in fact, a form of discrimination.</p><p>But Sekulow isn’t the only conservative Christian who jumped into the legal arena. In Florida, a conservative Seventh-day Adventist attorney named Mathew Staver started a small group called Liberty Counsel in 1989. The organization percolated along on a modest budget for a number of years before being subsumed into TV preacher Jerry Falwell’s empire in Lynchburg, Va.</p><p>Staver, who later converted to the Southern Baptist faith, now runs Liberty Counsel from Jerry Falwell Jr.’s Liberty University, where he also serves as dean of Liberty’s fledgling law school. It’s unclear how much Liberty Counsel spends because, remarkably, Staver claims the organization is a church auxiliary and refuses to make the organization’s finances public as other nonprofits are required to do.</p><p>Conservative Roman Catholics also started legal groups in the 1990s. The Becket Fund was founded by Kevin J. “Seamus” Hasson, and the Thomas More Law Center was formed by Richard Thompson with money from pizza magnate Monaghan.</p><p>The Religious Right landscape really began to shift in 1993, however, when a coalition of TV and radio preachers announced the formation of the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF). Radio preacher Marlin Maddoux pulled together figures such as James Dobson of Focus on the Family, Donald Wildmon of the American Family Association, Campus Crusade’s Bill Bright and D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Ministries to fund the ADF.</p><p>This band of politically active fundamentalists and “Christian nation” advocates conceived the ADF as a funding pool. The outfit would collect money from the legions of Religious Right donors and parcel it out to other groups that were active in court.</p><p>The ADF, which recently changed its name to the Alliance Defending Freedom, did that for a few years but soon began hiring attorneys and taking on litigation directly. Based in Scottsdale, Ariz., it took in over $46 million last year and had a network of volunteer attorneys all over the nation.</p><p>The Religious Right has even created law schools to train sympathetic attorneys. The best known is the law school at Robertson’s Regent University, although a new law school at Liberty University may eventually prove a contender. For conservative Catho­lics, Ave Maria School of Law in Naples, Fla., is a popular choice. (Another school with a far-right orientation, Pressler School of Law at Lou­isiana College, is in the works.)</p><p>The influence of these law schools shouldn’t be underestimated. The current governor of Virginia, Robert F. McDonnell, is a graduate of Regent Law. During the presidency of George W. Bush, Regent had a pipeline to the White House and federal agencies, and many of its graduates ended up with influential government positions, especially in the U.S. Justice Department. (One of them, Monica Goodling, a 1999 graduate of Regent Law, ran into trouble after she went to work at Justice and was accused of favoring job applicants who were “pro-God in public life” and engineering the firings of several U.S. attorneys.)</p><p>Although it doesn’t sponsor a law school, the ADF offers a special “Freedom Legal Academy” for attorneys and summer training for law students called the Blackstone Legal Fellowships.</p><p>Faculty for the Blackstone program includes discredited “Christian nation” advocate David Barton and two men – Gary DeMar and Andrew Sandlin – who are members of the extreme Christian Reconstructionist movement that seeks to replace American democracy with Old Testament “biblical law.”</p><p>The goal of the program, the ADF states bluntly on its website, is to “recover the robust Christendomic theolo­gy of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th centuries.”</p><p>The group boasts of a roster of more than 2,200 cooperating attorneys nationwide and ties to 300 “allied organizations.” The ADF claims it wins 80 percent of the cases it brings and cites 38 victories before the Supreme Court, although this includes lawsuits where the ADF’s involvement was limited to filings briefs or providing some funding. (Like the ACLJ, the group also does some work overseas and lists activity in 31 countries.)</p><p>In recent years, the ADF has aggressively urged pastors to openly violate federal tax law by endorsing candidates from their supposedly non­partisan pulpits and even sponsors an annual day of law-breaking called “Pulpit Freedom Sunday.”</p><p>As Religious Right leaders built their legal machine, they became more sophisticated. The organizations that sprang up in the 1980s were famous for tilting at windmills, often taking on cases they had little chance of winning.</p><p>Robertson’s ACLJ learned from those mistakes. The group framed its arguments in the language of fairness and equal treatment and leaned away from claims its lawyers knew would go nowhere in the courts.</p><p>For example, the ACLJ and other Religious Right groups often argue in favor of religious symbols or Ten Com­­­mandments monuments on public prop­­erty. Asserting that the United States was founded to be a Christian na­tion and thus the symbols are appropriate would be a non-starter in court, so these Religious Right attorneys instead insist that the symbols are merely part of an “open forum” or have a secular purpose such as educating the public about the historic origins of law.</p><p>The same logic applies to other church-state disputes. Thus, Religious Right legal groups claim the purpose of prayers before public school events or government meetings isn’t so much to worship God as it is to “solemnize” the occasion.</p><p>But the most prominent weapon in the Religious Right legal arsenal is the constant use of the term “religious freedom.” This phrase has a unique definition to Religious Right attorneys – it’s the right to tell other people what to do.</p><p>Thus, the “religious freedom” of churches is somehow infringed if same-sex couples are given access to civil marriages. A conservative Christian student’s “religious freedom” is violated if his public school biology teacher instructs about evolution.</p><p>Most recently, Religious Right legal groups have employed this argument in a string of cases dealing with access to birth control. They are asserting that the “religious freedom” of business owners and corporations is violated if the government mandates contraceptive access through health insurance plans.</p><p>Ironically, some of these organizations can’t be bothered to stand up when real religious freedom is threatened and, in fact, take stands counter to that principle. The ACLJ spent much of 2010 attempting to block the construction of an Islamic center in New York City, arguing it was too close to the site of the 9/11 attack.</p><p>The right of a religious group to build a house of worship on land it has purchased would seem to be a quintessential religious freedom is­sue, but the ACLJ chose instead to tap into a rich vein of Islamophobia among the far right.</p><p>Other Religious Right legal guns were mostly silent on the matter.</p><p>An anonymous ADF spokes­­person told Yahoo News blogger John Cook, “We’ve been asked by a few outlets. We’re not commenting.”</p><p>Some Religious Right legal eagles seem to believe that religious freedom is only for Christians.</p><p>On Sept. 11, 2010, Thomas More Law Center’s Thompson ran an incendiary column attacking Muslims and accusing them of seeking to “construct a victory mosque that towers over the ruins of the World Trade Center.” (In fact, the Islamic center would be several blocks away from the Trade Center site, and the group that wants to build it has no ties to the terrorists who masterminded 9/11.)</p><p>In public schools, Religious Right legal groups have argued that students have a “religious freedom” right to impose prayer and worship on other students at school-sponsored events. The effort has met with mixed success. The Supreme Court as recently as 2005 struck down so-called “student-initiated” prayers before football games, but some lower courts have bought into the Religious Right’s rationale and allowed students to recite prayers or engage in proselytizing during graduation ceremonies.</p><p>In other cases, Religious Right legal groups have argued that parents have a “religious freedom” right to send their children to private religious schools and that states are permitted to facilitate this through voucher plans. They’ve also raised religious freedom in defense of religious groups that want to take taxpayer money through “faith-based” initiatives yet limit hiring to fellow believers.</p><p>But perhaps the most alarming Religious Right attempt to redefine religious liberty comes in areas related to human sexuality. Religious Right legal groups have led the charge to roll back gay rights and block the spread of marriage equality in the states.</p><p>The marriage of a same-sex couple would seem to be no one’s business but their own. But to the Religious Right, such unions are a threat to Western civilization.</p><p>The ADF has been involved in a long-running case dealing with same-sex marriage in California. Voters narrowly approved a ban on same-sex unions in 2008, but the matter went to court. The Supreme Court will take up the issue this year, and the ADF and other Religious Right attorneys plan to be in the thick of the legal donnybrook.</p><p>When voters in Maryland, Maine and Washington approved same-sex marriage in 2012, ADF attorneys sent letters to state officials arguing that local court clerks have a “religious freedom” right to refuse to provide a government service to same-sex couples – a claim that has no foundation in the law.</p><p>Last year, the ADF took up the case of Julea Ward, a student at Eastern Michigan University. Ward, who was enrolled in a program to become a professional counselor, claimed her religious liberty rights were violated by a school policy that required her to abide by non-discrimination policies.</p><p>Ward said she would not counsel gays and lesbians. The school countered that its policies were based on standards promulgated by the American Counseling Association Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice and the American School Counselor Association Ethical Standards for School Counselors.</p><p>Cases like this are designed to help Rel­igious Right legal groups achieve their ultimate aim: preferential treatment for conservative religious interests.</p><p>If there’s one thing that binds these groups together, it’s their unrelenting hostility to the Jeffersonian church-state wall.</p><p>Alan Sears, a former Reagan-era anti-pornography crusader, serves as ADF president. In 2004, he told supporters, “One by one, more and more bricks that make up the artificial ‘wall of separation’ between church and state are being removed, and Christians are once again being allowed to exercise their constitutional right to equal access to public facilities and funding.”</p><p>Sekulow has frequently compared the church-state wall to the Berlin Wall. In the wake of one Supreme Court victory, Sekulow exhorted to his followers, “Yes, the so-called ‘wall of separation’ between church and state has begun to crumble.”</p><p>Staver has a special animus toward Americans United, an organization that he once said is “out to literally destroy America.” He has blasted AU and its supporters for “essentially saying that separation of church and state is required or part of the Constitution, which we know it’s not.”</p><p>The Becket Fund has often steered clear of language this incendiary, but that may be changing. Last year, writer Jon Ward of The Huffington Post reported that the group’s new president, William P. Mumma, was interested in taking the group in a more aggressive direction. Not long after that, the Becket Fund jumped head first into the “culture wars” by attacking access to birth control.</p><p>As these groups jockey for funding and exposure, some are branching out beyond church-state relations. Liberty Counsel filed one of the lawsuits against President Barack Obama’s health care reform, and the ACLJ’s Sekulow routinely pops off on issues such immigration, gun control and even the appointment of former U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel to be Defense Secretary. (Sekulow also has deep political ties to the GOP. During the 2012 election, he served as an advisor to Republican candidate Mitt Romney. There were even rumors that had Romney won, Sekulow would have been tapped for a federal position.)</p><p>These Religious Right organizations also have a warm relationship with government officials in many states. The ADF, for example, recently lined up 18 state attorneys general to sign a legal brief asking the Supreme Court to hear an appeal of <em>Galloway v. Town of Greece</em>, an Americans United case that successfully challenged sectarian prayers before municipal meetings in New York.</p><p>Similarly, the Becket Fund was able to muster considerable conservative legal firepower in asking the Supreme Court to hear an appeal of another AU case – <em>Doe v. School District of Elmbrook</em>, a successful challenge to a Wisconsin public school district’s practice of holding graduation ceremonies in a fundamentalist church. Becket drafted Michael McConnell, a law professor at Stanford and a former federal appeals court judge, to help frame its argument.</p><p>AU’s Lynn said the rise of Religious Right legal power is alarming and it’s critically important to meet the challenge in the nation’s courts.</p><p>“The ‘religious freedom’ the Religious Right seeks is the freedom to run other people’s lives according to their narrow doctrines,” Lynn said. “This is the opposite of real freedom, and it’s why Americans United’s legal department looks for every opportunity to counter the Religious Right agenda.” </p></div></div><a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><h3 >With Millions In Assets And Hundreds Of Attorneys Helping Out, The Religious Right&#039;s Legal Machine Is Waging War On The Church-State&nbsp;Wall</h3><div class="field field-name-field-cs-department field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Featured</div></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/descriptions-and-activities-religious-right-groups">Descriptions and Activities of Religious Right Groups</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/responding-common-attacks-church-state-separation">Responding to Common Attacks on Church-State Separation</a></span></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-cs-issue field-type-node-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Magazine Issue:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><article id="node-8088" class="node node-church-state-issue clearfix">
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<h2><a href="/church-state/march-2013-church-state">
The <span class="cs-month field">March</span> <span class="cs-year field"><span class="date-display-single">2013</span></span> issue of <em>Church &amp; State</em>
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<h3 class="field-content"><a href="/church-state/march-2013-church-state/featured/reading-writing-religious-intolerance">Reading, Writing &amp; Religious Intolerance</a></h3>
<h4>When A Tennessee Teacher Stood Up For Church-State Separation, She Faced Community Anger - And A Near Riot By Students</h4> </div>
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<h3 class="field-content"><a href="/church-state/march-2013-church-state/featured/the-next-chapter">The Next Chapter</a></h3>
<h4>From Symposia At The National Constitution Center In Philadelphia To First Amendment Day Celebrations In Texas, AU&#039;s Chapter Network Has Exciting Plans</h4> </div>
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<h3 class="field-content"><a href="/church-state/march-2013-church-state/featured/gods-lawyers">God&#039;s Lawyers</a></h3>
<h4>With Millions In Assets And Hundreds Of Attorneys Helping Out, The Religious Right&#039;s Legal Machine Is Waging War On The Church-State Wall</h4> </div>
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<h3 class="field-content"><a href="/church-state/march-2013-church-state/featured/saints-or-sinners">Saints Or Sinners?</a></h3>
<h4>Religious Right Lawyers Preach Morality, But Their Conduct Sometimes Falls Short</h4> </div>
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<h3 class="field-content"><a href="/church-state/march-2013-church-state/featured/betsy-pursell">Betsy Pursell </a></h3>
<h4>Named Development Director At Americans United</h4> </div>
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<div class="cs-department" id="section-editorial"> <h3>Editorial</h3>
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</ul></div><div class="cs-department" id="section-perspective"> <h3>Perspective</h3>
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<div class="views-field views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/church-state/march-2013-church-state/perspective/west-of-fairness-and-justice-new-documentary">West Of Fairness And Justice: New Documentary Showcases Dangers of Religious Hysteria</a></span> </div></li>
</ul></div><div class="cs-department" id="section-people--events"> <h3>People &amp; Events</h3>
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<div class="views-field views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/church-state/march-2013-church-state/people-events/au-counters-pro-voucher-propaganda-during-school">AU Counters Pro-Voucher Propaganda During ‘School Choice Week’</a></span> </div></li>
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<div class="views-field views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/church-state/march-2013-church-state/people-events/americans-united-named-human-rights-hero-by">Americans United Named ‘Human Rights Hero’ By Lawyers’ Magazine </a></span> </div></li>
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<div class="views-field views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/church-state/march-2013-church-state/people-events/texas-bible-classes-contain-sectarian-content-new">Texas Bible Classes Contain Sectarian Content, New Report Says</a></span> </div></li>
</ul></div><div class="cs-department" id="section-au-bulletin"> <h3>AU Bulletin</h3>
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<div class="views-field views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/church-state/march-2013-church-state/au-bulletin/majority-leader-considers-school-voucher-push">Majority Leader Considers School Voucher Push</a></span> </div></li>
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<div class="views-field views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/church-state/march-2013-church-state/au-bulletin/ga-neo-vouchers-subsidize-anti-gay-bias">Ga. Neo-Vouchers Subsidize Anti-Gay Bias </a></span> </div></li>
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<div class="views-field views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/church-state/march-2013-church-state/au-bulletin/most-americans-except-evangelicals-support-equality">Most Americans – Except Evangelicals – Support Equality</a></span> </div></li>
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<div class="views-field views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/church-state/march-2013-church-state/au-bulletin/court-tosses-out-lawsuit-over-funds-for-bishops">Court Tosses Out Lawsuit Over Funds For Bishops</a></span> </div></li>
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<div class="views-field views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/church-state/march-2013-church-state/au-bulletin/creationist-bills-pop-up-in-six-state-legislatures">Creationist Bills Pop Up In Six State Legislatures</a></span> </div></li>
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<div class="views-field views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/church-state/march-2013-church-state/au-bulletin/around-the-world-iran-sentences-evangelist-to">Around The World: Iran Sentences Evangelist To Prison For Proselytizing </a></span> </div></li>
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</div></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/alliance-defense-fund-adf">Alliance Defense Fund (ADF)</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/american-center-law-and-justice-aclj">American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ)</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/alan-sears">Alan Sears</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/jay-sekulow">Jay Sekulow</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix long-label"><div class="field-label">Religious Right Organization:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/resources/religious-right/alliance-defending-freedom">Alliance Defending Freedom</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/resources/religious-right/american-center-for-law-and-justice-aclj">American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ)</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix long-label"><div class="field-label">Religious Right People:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/resources/religious-right/alan-sears">Alan Sears</a></span></div></div>Fri, 01 Mar 2013 05:01:00 +0000Timothy Ritz8090 at https://au.orghttps://au.org/church-state/march-2013-church-state/featured/gods-lawyers#commentsAround The World: Iran Sentences Evangelist To Prison For Proselytizing https://au.org/church-state/march-2013-church-state/au-bulletin/around-the-world-iran-sentences-evangelist-to
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>Iran has sentenced a U.S. citizen to eight years in prison for allegedly threatening national security through his leadership role in Christian house churches, Reuters has reported.</p><p>Reports offered little detail of the trial, but Saeed Abedini became an ordained minister through the American Evangelical Association in 2008 and a U.S. citizen in 2010 through marriage, the wire service said.</p><p>The Religious Right-allied American Center for Law and Justice represented Abedini in court, but was only allowed to attend the trial for one day to present a defense.</p><p>“This is a real travesty – a mockery of justice,” ACLJ Executive Director Jordan Sekulow said. “From the very beginning, Iranian authorities have lied about all aspects of this case, even releasing rumors of his expected release.”</p><p> </p></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-cs-department field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">AU Bulletin</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-cs-issue field-type-node-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Magazine Issue:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><article id="node-8088" class="node node-church-state-issue clearfix">
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</div></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/american-center-law-and-justice-aclj">American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ)</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/jay-sekulow">Jay Sekulow</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix long-label"><div class="field-label">Religious Right Organization:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/resources/religious-right/american-center-for-law-and-justice-aclj">American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ)</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix long-label"><div class="field-label">Religious Right People:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/resources/religious-right/jay-sekulow">Jay Sekulow</a></span></div></div>Fri, 01 Mar 2013 05:01:00 +0000Timothy Ritz8103 at https://au.orghttps://au.org/church-state/march-2013-church-state/au-bulletin/around-the-world-iran-sentences-evangelist-to#commentsConcocted Controversy: Religious Right Complaints About 9/11 Commemoration Ring Hollow https://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/concocted-controversy-religious-right-complaints-about-911-commemoration
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Another manufactured controversy from the Religious Right.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p><strong> </strong></p>
<p>The 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks is approaching, and for some reason, Religious Right groups have decided to manufacture a new “culture war” controversy over a commemorative event that will take place in New York City.</p>
<p>New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has decided that the focus of the day should be on the families who lost loved ones during the attacks. He hasn’t invited <a href="http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/25/911-ceremony-wont-include-clergy-or-formal-prayers/">any clergy</a> to speak at the event. Instead, family members will read short passages that are meaningful for them. President Barack Obama, President George W. Bush and some other political leaders will also make brief remarks, but Bloomberg has made it clear that political speeches are not welcome.</p>
<p>Bloomberg’s decision to have no official clergy presence at the event doesn’t mean there will be no religious activity during the ceremony. In fact, there will be six moments of silence, during which attendees can pray, mediate or reflect as dictated by their individual consciences. A spokesperson for the mayor has also stated that some of the readings by family members will undoubtedly be spiritual in nature.</p>
<p>Because the focus will be on 9/11 families, clergy aren’t the only ones who won’t be taking part in the event. 9/11 first responders will also not be on the stage, and some of them are unhappy about that.</p>
<p>But again, that doesn’t mean these groups won’t be recognized. There will be many commemorative events in New York and other cities in and around Sept. 11, 2011. The New York Police Department, for example, has planned an event for Sept. 8 that will include prayers. In addition, an interfaith service to honor first responders is scheduled for Sept. 6.</p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p>Yesterday, during an appearance on the web-based FoxNewsLive.com, I debated this issue with Ken Klukowski of the Family Research Council. (A portion of the debate can be seen <a href="http://video.foxnews.com/v/1134440101001/why-wont-clergy-be-included-in-the-911-memorial-service/?playlist_id=87485">here</a>.) Klukowski opined that Bloomberg’s actions are some sort of affront to religion and an example of radical secularists attempting to purge religion from public life. I reminded him that on Sept. 11, millions of Americans will be praying (if they so choose) even if no clergy are part of a government-sponsored service.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the Religious Right keeps piling on. Klukowski’s FRC is sponsoring a <a href="https://www.frc.org/get.cfm?c=CHECKOUT&amp;dmy=1ADD9872-CA35-7889-134619BA48CC4F6D&amp;CFID=25669011&amp;CFTOKEN=705656636dff783a-31A7FB4A-948F-9B21-B5A04857BF45A787">petition</a> to demand that Bloomberg reverse course. So is TV preacher Pat Robertson’s <a href="http://aclj.org/public-prayer/open-9-11-remembrance-prayer">American Center for Law and Justice</a>. American Family Association blogger Bryan Fischer <a href="http://afa.net/Blogs/BlogPost.aspx?id=2147511189 ">asserts</a>, with absolutely no evidence, that Bloomberg barred all clergy because he doesn’t want to deal with Muslim clerics. (That’s OK with Fischer – he says such prayers should be limited to Christians and Jews anyway.)</p>
<p>It seems unfathomable to the Religious Right that perhaps Bloomberg is telling the truth and that he’d rather focus the remembrance on the families who lost their loved ones during that tragic day. It seems a fitting tribute to me.</p>
<p>This is just another example of Religious Right groups whipping up hysteria over a manufactured controversy. I expect them to do this when they’re blasting Obama or trying to raise money and get in the media with phony claims of a “war on Christmas” or whatever. But it’s offensive to pull cheap stunts like this over the national trauma that occurred on Sept. 11, 2001.</p>
<p>Have these people no shame?</p>
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<p><a href="http://video.foxnews.com/v/1134440101001/why-wont-clergy-be-included-in-the-911-memorial-service/?playlist_id=87485"><br /></a></p>
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</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/prayer-at-government-events-and-legislative-meetings">Prayer at Government Events and Legislative Meetings</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/911">9/11</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/american-center-law-and-justice-aclj">American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ)</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/american-family-association">American Family Association</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/bryan-fischer">Bryan Fischer</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/family-research-council">Family Research Council</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/ken-klukowski">Ken Klukowski</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/michael-bloomberg">Michael Bloomberg</a></span></div></div>Tue, 30 Aug 2011 16:06:35 +0000Rob Boston2225 at https://au.orghttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/concocted-controversy-religious-right-complaints-about-911-commemoration#commentsThe Italian Job: Religious Right Lawyers Sell Out Minority Evangelicals In Crucifix Casehttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/the-italian-job-religious-right-lawyers-sell-out-minority-evangelicals-in
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Religious Right zealots are so obsessed with opposing secular government they’re willing to throw their own coreligionists under the church bus. </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>Religious Right legal groups are all excited over a recent ruling by the European Court of Human Rights dealing with crucifix displays in public schools in Italy.</p>
<p>The European high court, ruling 15-2, overturned a lower court decision and <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/8391092/Crucifixes-can-be-displayed-in-EU-schools.html">declared</a> that the crucifixes can stay. They don’t oppress anyone’s rights, the court said, and European nations are entitled to some latitude in dealing with topics such as this.</p>
<p>The legal challenge was brought by Soile Lautsi, a Finnish woman who now lives near Venice, where her children attend public schools.</p>
<p>Justices with the Strasbourg, France-based court wrote, “While the crucifix was above all a religious symbol, there was no evidence before the court that the display of such a symbol on classroom walls might have an influence on pupils.”</p>
<p>As you might expect, the Vatican was <a href="http://www.lifeinitaly.com/news/en/crucifix-ruling-historic-says-vatican">pretty excited</a>. But the European Centre for Law and Justice, a branch of TV preacher Pat Robertson’s American Center for Law and Justice, was elated. The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) also hailed the ruling. (Both groups had filed briefs urging the court to uphold the crucifixes.)</p>
<p>I found the reaction of the Religious Right legal groups to be most curious. Both of these organizations are largely evangelical Christian in character. Why are they celebrating the elevation of a Roman Catholic symbol by the Italian government?</p>
<p>Their coreligionists – evangelicals who actually live in Italy – aren’t so pleased with the outcome. The Italian Federation of Evangelical Churches called the ruling “a decision that does not fully realize a secular state” and “baggage from a society dominated by Catholic culture.”</p>
<p>Added the evangelical churches, “Crucifixes will continue to be present in schoolrooms and courtrooms, but for the minorities who won religious and civil rights 150 years ago, such as the evangelical churches, these crosses do not convey a common sense of belonging.”</p>
<p>Interestingly, when the ADF sent out an email about the cases, it was headlined, “Crosses can stay in Italy’s classrooms, European Court rules.” I find it hard to believe that anyone at the ADF is that theologically ignorant. A cross and a crucifix are not the same thing. The latter includes a depiction of the body of Christ; although common in Catholic and some Orthodox churches, it’s not a symbol used by Protestants.</p>
<p>So, the ACLJ and the ADF are celebrating a court ruling that elevates a majority faith and actually takes away the rights of minority evangelicals. These Religious Right zealots are so obsessed with opposing secular government they’re willing to throw their own coreligionists under the church bus. Yet, both groups expect us to believe that they don’t want religious majority rule in America.</p>
<p>Historically, evangelicals in Italy have had a tough time of it. Catholicism was the government-enforced faith for many centuries, and Italian officials weren’t known for religious tolerance. The persecution, torture and murder of the Waldensians in the 11th and 12th centuries is just one example.</p>
<p>Italy was formed around 1860 when various states in the region were pulled together. Originally a kingdom, the country’s modern constitution, adopted in 1947, protects religious liberty – on paper, at least. Article VIII says all religious confessions “are equally free before the law.”</p>
<p>In reality, the Catholic Church has long enjoyed a favored relationship with the state. A concordat signed between church officials and future fascist dictator Benito Mussolini in 1929 guaranteed church control of education. Classroom crucifixes symbolized the church-state embrace.</p>
<p>Provisions of the concordat – known as the Lateran Treaty – were incorporated into the 1947 constitution. Article VII of that document states, “The State and the Catholic Church are, each within its own order, independent and sovereign. Their relationship is regulated by the lateran pacts. Amendments to these pacts which are accepted by both parties do not require the procedure of constitutional amendments.”</p>
<p>The 1929 concordat was updated in 1984. The new pact declared that Catholicism was no longer the sole religion of the Italian state. But it also called Catholicism part of the “historical heritage of the Italian people,” and the government promised that the faith would be taught “in state schools of every order and grade, excepting universities.” (Classes are voluntary.)</p>
<p>Crucifixes are also common in Italian courtrooms. Not everyone thinks this is a good idea. Luigi Tosti, a Jewish judge who protested the presence of crucifix in his courtroom in the city of Camerino was fired, and his dismissal was <a href="http://www.lifeinitaly.com/news/top-court-upholds-sacking-anti-cross-judge">later upheld</a> by Italy’s highest court. (Tosti said the recent ruling on classroom crucifixes is “grotesque.”)</p>
<p>One more thought on this: Italy, like the rest of Western Europe, isn’t exactly a church-going nation these days. Some scholars put the church attendance rate at about <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1543643/Italian-church-attendance-lower-than-thought.html">15 percent</a>. Declarations by courts that the presence of the crucifix isn’t that important any more aren’t going to reverse that trend.</p>
<p>Consider what the court said: The crucifix doesn’t affect pupils. But isn’t it supposed to? Isn’t that the very idea behind displaying it? But we’re told that the major symbol of the country’s dominant religion has become like wallpaper – after a while, you don’t even notice it anymore, and it has no affect on anyone. Can someone explain to me how this is good for religion?</p>
<p>Most likely, Italy will end up looking like a lot of other nations in Western Europe. It will have a “Christian heritage” and all of the trappings of faith (religious symbols in government buildings, tax aid to churches, maybe even an official state church) – it just won’t have many people who actually attend services or take religion very seriously. (Has anyone been following the <a href="http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/236150/Sexy-pictures-add-heat-to-Silvio-Berlusconi-scandal">antics</a> of that good and faithful Catholic Silvio Berlusconi lately?)</p>
<p>So the ACLJ and the ADF saved the symbol. Nice job. But their victory rings hollow because it represents the ultimate triumph of symbolism over substance. I find it hard to believe that the win is in the long-term interests of religious vitality.</p>
<p>And it certainly doesn’t bolster true religious liberty. Ask the evangelical Christians in Italy.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/religion-public-schools-and-universities">Religion in Public Schools and Universities</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/religious-mottos-pledges-and-resolutions">Religious Mottos, Pledges and Resolutions</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/alliance-defense-fund-adf">Alliance Defense Fund (ADF)</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/american-center-law-and-justice-aclj">American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ)</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/italy">Italy</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/luigi-tosti">Luigi Tosti</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/silvio-berlusconi">Silvio Berlusconi</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/soile-lautsi">Soile Lautsi</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/vatican">Vatican</a></span></div></div>Wed, 23 Mar 2011 15:48:35 +0000Rob Boston2176 at https://au.orghttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/the-italian-job-religious-right-lawyers-sell-out-minority-evangelicals-in#commentsThe Phelps Decision: Supreme Court Decision Undercuts Religious Right Liehttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/the-phelps-decision-supreme-court-decision-undercuts-religious-right-lie
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">The Supreme Court has made it clear that even jerks have free-speech rights.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p><strong> </strong></p>
<p>As I’m sure everyone knows by now, the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/03/AR2011030304124.html">upheld the right</a> of Westboro Baptist Church to picket near the funerals of soldiers who died while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.</p>
<p>In any writing about Westboro Baptist, it is important to immediately make it clear that the messages from Pastor Fred Phelps and his family are vile, obnoxious and disgusting. But, as the high court has made clear, even jerks have free-speech rights.</p>
<p>There has been no end of discussion about this church and its antics. Today I want to focus on an overlooked aspect of the controversy: For years, we’ve been hearing Religious Right leaders claim that their freedom to speak out on issues like homosexuality and abortion is at risk. To hear them tell it, “hate speech” laws are just around the corner, and Pastor Bob is only one step away from being tossed in the hoosegow if he dares to read from the Book of Leviticus in the pulpit.</p>
<p>It’s hard to imagine speech more hateful than that put forth by Westboro Baptist’s members. They think God is punishing America for tolerating homosexuality, so they hoist signs reading, “God Hates Fags,” “Thank God for IEDs” and “Pray for More Dead Soldiers.”</p>
<p>This is some seriously hateful stuff – and by an 8-1 vote the Supreme Court said in <a href="http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/10pdf/09-751.pdf"><em>Snyder v. Phelps</em></a> that it is protected speech. If Westboro Baptist can claim the mantle of the First Amendment to unleash this stuff, I don’t think Pastor Bob has to worry about his pulpit criticisms of same-sex marriage.</p>
<p>Whenever cases like this come up, the term “hate speech” is thrown around a lot in the media. Although this term appears in common parlance, it’s not something the courts have adopted. Sure, a lot of speech can be termed “hateful” – and it’s also protected speech. The First Amendment does not require that speech be polite, rational or popular. After all, the First Amendment wouldn’t be very useful if all it did was protect your right to say something everyone agrees with.</p>
<p>Interestingly, two of the leading Religious Right legal groups that constantly raise the phony argument that “hate speech” bans will shut down churches couldn’t even be bothered to stand up for the principle of free speech in this case. The Alliance Defense Fund did not file a friend-of-the-court brief. TV preacher Pat Robertson’s American Center for Law and Justice did file one – but took the cowardly approach of supporting neither side.</p>
<p>Only Liberty Counsel, a legal group based at the late Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University Law School, dared side with Westboro Baptist Church. I disagree with just about everything Liberty Counsel stands for but will concede that in this case the group at least showed some courage. This left Liberty Counsel in an unusual place – agreeing with its nemesis, the American Civil Liberties Union. (In case you’re wondering, Americans United did not file a brief because the court examined this case on the grounds of free speech, not separation of church and state.)</p>
<p>I’ve sat through many Religious Right meetings in my day. I’ve heard some pretty nasty rhetoric blasting forth from speakers’ podiums. I’ve heard gay people, feminists, liberals, progressive Christians, Muslims and non-religious Americans called all manner of names and portrayed as corrosive to national life.</p>
<p>To be honest, a lot of the talk bothered me. But the answer is not to shut down the speaker; the answer is to use the same right of free speech to refute those ugly lies and present a more positive, truthful alternative to the American people.</p>
<p>This would seem like a pretty basic principle of our national life. We are, after all, a nation founded on a yearning for liberty. The Supreme Court affirmed that principle on Wednesday. In the process, the high court proved, yet again, that so much of what the Religious Right says is all wet.</p>
<p>The claim that “hate speech” laws are going to shut down fundamentalist churches and gag conservative pastors is, to put it politely, bunk. It was never a persuasive argument, and in light of Wednesday’s ruling stands in shreds. I’m hoping Religious Right leaders will have the decency to stop saying it – but I won’t hold my breath.</p>
</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/alliance-defense-fund-adf">Alliance Defense Fund (ADF)</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/american-center-law-and-justice-aclj">American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ)</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/courts">In the Courts</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/liberty-counsel">Liberty Counsel</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/snyder-v-phelps">Snyder v. Phelps</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/supreme-court">Supreme Court</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/us-supreme-court">The U.S. Supreme Court</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/westboro-baptist-church">Westboro Baptist Church</a></span></div></div>Fri, 04 Mar 2011 16:56:07 +0000Rob Boston2171 at https://au.orghttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/the-phelps-decision-supreme-court-decision-undercuts-religious-right-lie#commentsA Commandment For An Ohio Judge: Thou Shalt Not Promote Religion In Court!https://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/a-commandment-for-an-ohio-judge-thou-shalt-not-promote-religion-in-court
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">It&#039;s not a judge&#039;s job to promote religion. It might be in Iran, but it’s not here.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p><strong> </strong></p>
<p>Yesterday a federal appeals court in Ohio <a href="http://www.au.org/media/press-releases/archives/2011/02/au-applauds-decision-striking.html">ruled against</a> a state judge in Richland County who had erected a religious display in his courtroom.</p>
<p>James DeWeese, a judge of the Court of Common Pleas, had put up a display entitled “Philosophies of Law in Conflict” that contrasted the “Moral Absolutes” of the Ten Commandments with the “Moral Relatives” of humanism.</p>
<p>This was DeWeese’s second attempt at a Commandments display. His first, erected in 2000, featured the Commandments opposite a poster of the Bill of Rights, presenting each as “the rule of law.”</p>
<p>After a lower court smacked down DeWeese’s most recent effort last year, DeWeese <a href="http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/article/20110203/NEWS01/102030307/Appeals-court-No-way-to-poster-display">draped a dark cloth</a> over the display accompanied by a sign headlined, “Censored.”</p>
<p>Now that DeWeese has lost in court again, it’s time for him to stop the grandstanding. The appeals court got it right: DeWeese was promoting religion. In this country, that’s not a judge’s job. It might be in Iran, but it’s not here.</p>
<p>In fact, a judge is absolutely the last person you would want going on a religious tear. Representational statues of Justice are blind for a reason: When you come before the court, the judge isn’t supposed to care if you are rich or poor or if you’re black, white, brown, yellow or red. The court isn’t supposed to care if you’re a man or a woman or where your ancestors lived.</p>
<p>The court also isn’t supposed to care what religion – if any – you profess.</p>
<p>Obviously, there have been times in our history when we have fallen short of this ideal. But we’ve made great gains, and it’s a standard we still hold dear – justice for all. It is the very basis of our legal system.</p>
<p>But could all people truly get justice in Judge DeWeese’s court? Could a self-professed humanist, walking into the courtroom and seeing his or her views derided as a dangerous form of moral relativism that is literally destroying the nation, feel comfortable there?</p>
<p>Conversely, wouldn’t a believer who agreed with DeWeese’s views be tempted to find a way to bring that up in court – knowing it might lead to a more favorable judgment?</p>
<p>It's bad enough that DeWeese’s display is factually inaccurate – American law is based on many sources, but not the Ten Commandments or any other religious code. His crude caricature of humanist beliefs is also offensive. But perhaps worst of all is the fact that DeWeese, through his displays, violated a fundamental tenet of our legal system: All are equal before the court.</p>
<p>In DeWeese’s court, some people are more equal than others – and it all depends on what they believe about religion.</p>
<p>DeWeese’s attorney, Francis Manion of TV preacher Pat Robertson’s American Center for Law and Justice, is considering an appeal to the full 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals or the U.S. Supreme Court.</p>
<p>A little unsolicited advice to Manion: Stop wasting your time. DeWeese’s track record on this issue is poor because he has a lousy case. The best thing he could do right now would be to drop the religious crusade, remove the display and focus on being the best judge he can for all of the citizens of Richland County, believers and non-believers alike.</p>
</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/religious-mottos-pledges-and-resolutions">Religious Mottos, Pledges and Resolutions</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/american-center-law-and-justice-aclj">American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ)</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/francis-manion">Francis Manion</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/courts">In the Courts</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/james-deweese">James DeWeese</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/ohio">Ohio</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/richland-county">Richland County</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/ten-commandments">ten commandments</a></span></div></div>Thu, 03 Feb 2011 17:49:22 +0000Rob Boston2160 at https://au.orghttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/a-commandment-for-an-ohio-judge-thou-shalt-not-promote-religion-in-court#commentsLand Plan Panned: N.Y. Governor’s Islamic Center ‘Compromise’ Draws Fire https://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/land-plan-panned-ny-governor%E2%80%99s-islamic-center-%E2%80%98compromise%E2%80%99-draws-fire
<a href="/about/people/bathija">Sandhya Bathija</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>There’s been a new development in the situation over the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque.”</p>
<p>Yesterday, New York Gov. David Paterson came up with an idea that he felt would be a compromise in the recent uproar over the building of an Islamic community center in lower Manhattan.</p>
<p>A Muslim group’s recent purchase of a building near the 9/11 site has some Americans, <a href="http://www.aclj.org/TrialNotebook/Read.aspx?ID=983">including</a> TV preacher Pat Robertson’s American Center for Law and Justice, up in arms because they feel it’s a “slap in the face” to victims of the attack.</p>
<p>I personally don’t see how you can blame an entire religion (with an estimated 1.5 billion members) because of the violent actions of an extremist faction within it. But that viewpoint seems lost on some folks. (It’s deplorable that some politicians – Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, etc. -- are shamelessly exploiting this issue for political gain.)</p>
<p>Paterson has tried to find a middle ground. He believes the Muslim group has a legal right to build the center at the proposed site, but he has offered an alternative that might be more “sensitive.”</p>
<p>“Frankly,” Paterson <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/08/10/2010-08-10_gov_paterson_no_objection_to_ground_zero_mosque_but_floats_state_land_for_less_c.html">said</a> at a press conference, “if the sponsors were looking for property anywhere at a distance that would be such that it would accommodate a better feeling among the people who are frustrated, I would look into trying to provide them with the state property they would need.”</p>
<p>You read that right – Paterson’s solution is to construct the religious building on government land. Why didn’t anyone else think of that already?</p>
<p>Maybe because giving public land to a religious group – or even selling it on a preferred basis – would be unconstitutional.</p>
<p>Barry Lynn, AU’s executive director, and Boston University School of Law Professor Jay Wexler slammed the governor’s suggestion in an article at Salon.com.</p>
<p>“I think the governor should really back off this idea,” said Lynn. “When a private group wants to build a center that contains a mosque on their own private property they have a right to do that.</p>
<p>“But the law bars the use of government funds to house an entity that is going to be used in part for religious purposes,” Lynn explained.</p>
<p>Wexler said Patterson’s plan could be successfully challenged in court.</p>
<p>“They’re really giving government aid to religion – the aid is the break between fair market value and whatever they’re selling it for,” he <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/08/10/paterson_mosque_plan_constitution">said</a>. “That’s almost like they’re giving a bunch of money to a mosque.”</p>
<p>When Congress decided to grant a parcel of land in Mississippi to a Baptist church back in 1811, President James Madison vetoed the measure. Madison, considered the Father of the Constitution, said such aid “comprises a principle and precedent for the appropriation of funds of the United States for the use and support of religious societies, contrary to the article of the Constitution which declares that ‘Con­gress shall make no law respecting a religious establishment.’”</p>
<p>Giving government land to religious groups is still unconstitutional today, Gov. Patterson.</p>
<p>Fortunately, Paterson’s idea is so patently unconstitutional it probably won’t see the light of day. Allowing the government to provide land or in any way fund the building of a house of worship violates the basic American principle that religion and government must remain separate.</p>
<p>This should outrage Americans, yet it’s hardly caused a stir. At the same time, when a private group wants to build a religion-based community center on private land, some find cause for a public uproar.</p>
<p>All this goes to show that many Americans could benefit from another glance at the Constitution, and that includes Paterson.</p>
</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/american-center-law-and-justice-aclj">American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ)</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/david-paterson">David Paterson</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/freedom-religion">Freedom of Religion</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/ground-zero-mosque">Ground Zero mosque</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/islamic-community-center-lower-manhattan">Islamic Community Center in Lower Manhattan</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/new-york-city">New York City</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/religious-discrimination">religious discrimination</a></span></div></div>Wed, 11 Aug 2010 19:40:09 +0000Sandhya Bathija2456 at https://au.orghttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/land-plan-panned-ny-governor%E2%80%99s-islamic-center-%E2%80%98compromise%E2%80%99-draws-fire#commentsFrivolous Filing: TV Preacher’s Legal Group Sues To Block Islamic Center In New York Cityhttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/frivolous-filing-tv-preacher%E2%80%99s-legal-group-sues-to-block-islamic-center-in
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p><strong> </strong></p>
<p>Yesterday, New York City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously to allow construction of an Islamic center in lower Manhattan. Immediately after the vote, TV preacher Pat Robertson’s American Center for Law and Justice announced that it would <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/03/ground-zero-mosque-appeal_n_669426.html">file suit</a> to block the move.</p>
<p>Why is an organization that purports to promote religious freedom suing to stop construction of house of worship?</p>
<p>It’s a good question, and the answer is simple: naked religious bigotry.</p>
<p>Some people are furious because this facility, called the Cordoba House, is only two blocks from Ground Zero, site of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. They have taken to calling the center the “Ground Zero Mosque.”</p>
<p>There are a few problems with that description. First off, it’s not a mosque. The Cordoba House (also known as “Park 51”), will contain a prayer room, but it’s mainly an Islamic center. Its backers, moderate Muslims who have condemned al Qaeda terrorists, say their intention is to build bridges of understanding and strengthen moderate forms of Islam. The facility will also contain a restaurant, retail space, a fitness center and meeting rooms.</p>
<p>In the United States, religious groups are free to erect meeting spaces as long as they comply with land-use laws. The Cordoba House has already done that, so what possible grounds does the ACLJ have to oppose this facility?</p>
<p>Grasping at any legal straw, Jay Sekulow, the attorney who runs the ACLJ, says the building at the Cordoba House site, which is slated to be razed, is historic and must be saved.</p>
<p>In a press release, Sekulow calls the building, which dates to the 1850s, “historic and hallowed” and claims that his group’s opposition is “not based upon fear, hostility or prejudice, but rather the unique architectural and historical characteristics of the building and the public’s interest in preserving the history of the September 11th events.”</p>
<p>But in fact, the public has shown little interest in preserving the building. It was severely damaged during the attack and sat empty until its purchase in 2009. The building was not especially iconic before the attack: It housed a Burlington Coat Factory store.</p>
<p>Yesterday, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/08/03/mayor_bloomberg_on_mosque/">eloquently explained</a> why Sekulow and his band of Muslim-bashers are wrong.</p>
<p>Bloomberg rightly portrayed the issue as one of separation of church and state. In America, he pointed out, the government has no authority to deny religious groups the right to meet and build facilities simply because some people don’t like those groups.</p>
<p>“I believe that this is an important test of the separation of church and state as we may see in our lifetimes, as important a test,” Bloomberg said. “And it is critically important that we get it right.”</p>
<p>Thomas Jefferson would also rebuke those who pander to the base emotions of hate, fear and rage. When his landmark Virginia Statute for Religious Liberty became law, Jefferson rejoiced that efforts to limits its protections to Christians were turned back.</p>
<p>The law, Jefferson enthused, would protect “the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo, the infidel of every denomination.”</p>
<p>As disturbing as this incident is, it has some value: It has, beyond all doubt, exposed Sekulow for what he has always been: a Religious Right operative who wants the government to give preferential treatment to Christianity and second-class status to nonbelievers and adherents of other faiths. He seems ready to blame all Muslims for actions of an extremist faction of that faith.</p>
<p>The irony is rich. Sekuow, after all, would be the first to complain if he were lumped in with fundamentalist Christian extremists who shoot abortion providers and bomb women’s clinics.</p>
<p>Sekulow is free to descend to the level of those so blinded by rage and hate that they would trash one of our core constitutional principles. But as he does so, he should be honest about what he his cohorts are up to: They are mocking, not upholding, America’s great tradition of religious liberty.</p>
<p>P.S.: <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/03/AR2010080305390.html">The Washington Post</a> and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/04/opinion/04wed1.html?_r=1">The New York Times</a> have thoughtful editorials about this issue today. They deserve some of your time.</p>
</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/fighting-religious-right">Fighting the Religious Right</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/american-center-law-and-justice-aclj">American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ)</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/cordoba-house">Cordoba House</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/ground-zero-mosque">Ground Zero mosque</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/jay-sekulow">Jay Sekulow</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/park-51">Park 51</a></span></div></div>Wed, 04 Aug 2010 14:42:06 +0000Rob Boston2104 at https://au.orghttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/frivolous-filing-tv-preacher%E2%80%99s-legal-group-sues-to-block-islamic-center-in#commentsMercenary Missionaries: Religious Right’s Move In Zimbabwe Resurrects Sorry Historyhttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/mercenary-missionaries-religious-right%E2%80%99s-move-in-zimbabwe-resurrects-sorry
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>TV preacher Pat Robertson and other Religious Right leaders have long been interested in the continent of Africa. They seem to believe that they can find a country there to serve as a laboratory for their misguided social agenda – as well as plunder any wealth the area may have.</p>
<p>It reeks of the worst form of old-style colonialism.</p>
<p>Most recently, Robertson minions have invaded Zimbabwe, a landlocked nation in southern Africa long afflicted with government corruption and poverty.</p>
<p>Sarah Posner, associate editor of the Web site "Religion Dispatches," <a href="http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/sexandgender/3056/pat_robertson%E2%80%99s_women_warriors_leading_spiritual_warfare_in_zimbabwe_/ ">reports</a> that Pastor Vicky Mpofu serves as Robertson’s point person in Zimbabwe. Aided by Jay Sekulow, head of the Robertson-founded legal group the American Center for Law and Justice, Mpofu has launched an African arm called the African Centre for Law and Justice. Sekulow’s son, Jordan, is also involved, serving as director of international operations for the American Center for Law and Justice.</p>
<p>What do Robertson and the Sekulows want in Zimbabwe?</p>
<p>The agenda may sound familiar. As Posner puts it, “[T]he African Centre for Law and Justice is injecting itself into the political process of drafting a new constitution that will supposedly pave the way for new elections. The African Centre for Law and Justice is aiming to do in Zimbabwe precisely what the religious right seeks to accomplish in the United States: declare the country a ‘Christian nation’ guided by biblical principles, outlaw abortion, and ostracize and criminalize LGBT people.”</p>
<p>Robertson and his gang have been down this road before. In the mid-1990s. Robertson became enamored of the central African nation of Zambia and its president, Frederick Chiluba. Chiluba was a guest on the “700 Club,” where he explained to an enthralled Roberson that he had officially declared his country a “Christian nation.”</p>
<p>A beaming Robertson turned to his television audience and gushed, “Wouldn’t you love to have someone like that as president of the United States of America?”</p>
<p>Soon, the loon brigade from the Christian Reconstructionist movement jump aboard. This collection of unrepentant theocrats opined that once Zambia was totally “reconstructed” – that is, converted into a fundamentalist Christian theocracy adhering to the Old Testament’s harsh legal code – it would serve as a base for retaking America.</p>
<p>Alas for them, the schemed failed. Chiluba left office in 2002 and, along with his wife, was charged with wide-scale corruption. Although Chiluba was acquitted by a Zambian court, he was <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6624547.stm">found guilty</a> of stealing $46 million in a civil case in England. Some of the money, prosecutors argued, went to pay for fancy clothes and a lavish lifestyle during a time when many Zambians lived on a dollar a day.</p>
<p>Around the same time he was lauding Chiluba, Robertson was cozying up to Mobutu Sese Seko, the dictator of Zaire (now the Congo). Robertson was so eager to get a stake in the country’s lucrative diamond trade that he unsuccessfully lobbied the U.S. government to lift its ban on the brutal and corrupt Mobutu.</p>
<p>More scandalously, Robertson <a href="http://blog.au.org/2005/09/04/this_operation_/">used airplanes</a> from his Operation Blessing charity to ferry diamond-mining equipment in and out of the country – all while claiming he was doing humanitarian work there.</p>
<p>That venture collapsed when Mobutu was overthrown in 1997. Robertson’s overtures to the Congo’s new leaders went nowhere, and in 2001 he began wooing Liberian strongman Charles Taylor in a <a href="http://www.au.org/media/press-releases/archives/1999/06/tv-preacher-robe.html">gold-mining deal </a>– despite Taylor’s known brutality and his role in the violent civil war that had racked the nation.</p>
<p>And let’s not forget what other Religious Right activists have done in Uganda. Legislators there, worked into a state of frenzy by anti-gay far-right speakers from U.S. Religious Right groups, have actually proposed legislation mandating <a href="http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/africa/Ugandan-Activist-Says-Outside-Pressure-Has-Slowed-Anti-Gay-Bill---98882249.html">the death penalty</a> for gay men and lesbians.</p>
<p>The residents of many African nations have struggled for years to cast off the legacy left by decades of imperialism and oppression. The last thing they need is to be left to the tender mercies of a band of Religious Right extremists and greedy TV preachers.</p>
</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/fighting-religious-right">Fighting the Religious Right</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/africa">Africa</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/american-center-law-and-justice-aclj">American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ)</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/jay-sekulow">Jay Sekulow</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/liberia">Liberia</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/pat-robertson">Pat Robertson</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/uganda">Uganda</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/zimbabwe">Zimbabwe</a></span></div></div>Mon, 02 Aug 2010 15:13:38 +0000Rob Boston2103 at https://au.orghttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/mercenary-missionaries-religious-right%E2%80%99s-move-in-zimbabwe-resurrects-sorry#commentsCommencement Clash Ceases (For Now): Conn. School Board Won’t Appeal Court Ruling Barring Church-Based Graduation https://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/commencement-clash-ceases-for-now-conn-school-board-won%E2%80%99t-appeal-court
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">The Enfield, Conn., school board has wasted enough time (and taxpayer money) on this matter. </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>There’s good news out of Enfield, Conn.: The school board has decided <a href="http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-enfield-graduations-0604-20100603,0,6252326,print.story">not to appeal</a> a federal court ruling barring them from holding their high school graduations in a large evangelical church.</p>
<p>You might recall that Americans United, the ACLU of Connecticut and the national ACLU <a href="http://www.au.org/media/press-releases/archives/2010/05/connecticut-schools-plan-to.html?utm_source=au%2Bhomepage&amp;utm_medium=homepage%2Bbanner&amp;utm_campaign=Featured%2Bon%20homepage">filed suit</a> to block the board from having commencement ceremonies at First Cathedral in Bloomfield.</p>
<p>AU and the ACLU represent students and parents who did not want to have this important ceremony take place in a church festooned with the symbols of one particular religion. We took this action only after sending several letters to the school board, urging them to use a secular facility.</p>
<p>The board at first agreed to stop using the church but then reversed itself after the Family Institute of Connecticut, a Religious Right group affiliated with Focus on the Family, began a lobbying campaign.</p>
<p>Family Institute leaders contacted Greg Stokes, chairman of the education board, and urged him to go back to First Cathedral. In an e-mail to supporters, the Family Institute wrote that if the graduation ceremonies were not returned to the church “it will increase the power of aggressive secularism and cause further harm to the proper role of faith communities in our state.”</p>
<p>The Institute referred the board to TV preacher Pat Robertson’s American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), which agreed to represent the board in court. The case was argued before U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall, who actually took the time to visit First Cathedral herself.</p>
<p>Hall <a href="http://www.au.org/media/press-releases/archives/2010/05/20100531-enfield-opinion.pdf">ruled in favor</a> of AU and the ACLU on May 31.</p>
<p>At first, Vincent McCarthy, the ACLJ attorney who is handling the case, vowed to appeal. But after spending a few days thinking it over, the school board has decided on a different course. Members voted 5-4 June 3 not to appeal Hall’s ruling to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Graduation ceremonies will take place June 23 and 24 at the two high schools in the district.</p>
<p>“Appealing would not have meant we were going to the cathedral,” said board member Judith Apruzzese-Desroches. “We need to get it done. We need to provide something for these students who are graduating. The board needs to move on and establish a graduation site and get back to education.”</p>
<p>Indeed.</p>
<p>The board has wasted enough time (and taxpayer money) on this matter. As AU pointed out repeatedly during an injunction hearing, there were plenty of secular options the board could have used. For some reason, members seemed to determine to stick with First Cathedral, the least appropriate option.</p>
<p><a href="http://blogs.courant.com/rick_green/2010/06/enfield-politicians-learn-abou.html">This blogger</a> for the <em>Hartfort Courant</em> got it right: At a time when public school budgets are being slashed, squandering funds on a lawsuit like this is misguided. The legal fight was never necessary. The board should have stuck with its original vote not to use First Cathedral rather than take the counsel of the Religious Right.</p>
<p>The board’s vote does not mean the case is over. Hall ruled on a motion for a preliminary injunction, and the larger issues brought by the case are<a href="http://www.registercitizen.com/articles/2010/06/05/news/doc4c09d91c3a606204907997.txt"> moving forward</a>. The best thing the board could do now would be to discuss a permanent settlement of this matter. They could best do that by promising to hold future commencement exercises in facilities that are welcoming to all.</p>
</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/fighting-religious-right">Fighting the Religious Right</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/religion-public-schools-and-universities">Religion in Public Schools and Universities</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/american-center-law-and-justice-aclj">American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ)</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/connecticut">Connecticut</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/enfield">Enfield</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/religion-public-schools-and-universities">Religion in Public Schools and Universities</a></span></div></div>Mon, 07 Jun 2010 16:59:47 +0000Rob Boston2089 at https://au.orghttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/commencement-clash-ceases-for-now-conn-school-board-won%E2%80%99t-appeal-court#comments